Good Intentions (The Road to Hell Series, Book 1) (24 page)

Most of them were slacked-jaw, some looked irritated by what they’d witnessed, and a few were staring at me as if I were the lowest life form in existence. I noticed those stares were mostly from the women, but there were a couple of men staring at me as if I repulsed them too.

Apparently, some people didn’t approve of interspecies relations, even if there weren’t any relations between us.
Yet
, I had to admit to myself.
Weakling
, I scolded afterward.

Turning back, Kobal took hold of my elbow and propelled me forward. I tried to pull my arm from his grasp, but he only clamped his hand more firmly around it. “It’s better if they know you’re under my protection.”

“I can protect myself,” I finally managed to protest as my exhausted legs strove to keep up with his lengthy strides.

His eyes had returned to black when they latched onto me. “You’re
mine
to protect now.”

“I’m not
any
one’s. I am not a possession. I’m a person, sort of, and I’m not here for you to order about or for them to judge!”

The arrogant oaf didn’t bother to respond as he continued unrelentingly through the wasteland of the town surrounding us. I tried jerking my arm away from him again, but he held on. I could feel my blood pressure rising as my temples pounded with the beats of my heart.

In an instant, he faded away and all I saw were the burned out homes and landscape surrounding us. The blackened trees still standing amid the rubble stretched into the cloudless sky. A single crow sat on the branches of the only other living thing, a large maple tree near the edge of town. Some green grass peaked through the rubble here and there, but most of it was buried beneath the remaining wreckage of the leveled town.

After thirteen years, the smell of fire and death still permeated the area. Layers of blackened walls from the homes were stacked where they had fallen on the ground. Charred beams rose into the sky, and more than a handful of brick chimneys still stood as testament to the homes and people who had once loved, laughed, and died here.

Died
. The breeze blowing over my skin dried the sweat on it and sent a shiver down my spine. Death, so much of it here and somehow I knew there was more coming.

Then I saw the eyes, or not eyes, as there was nothing within the shrunken, weathered eye sockets facing me from underneath the remains of a roof. Even if there was nothing left to stare from, I could feel its gaze on me. Around those empty eye sockets was a glistening rim of white bone. Shrunken and discolored skin stuck to its skull.

A hand slid out, the skin of it was grayed and flaking with decay. Bones poked out from the ends of its fingers. No clothing covered its withered chest and arms as it pulled itself from beneath the roof. My throat went dry as a strange combination of mummy and skeleton emerged from the wreckage.

It looked like it would fall apart at the same time fresh, slimy flesh adhered to its bony remains in some areas. It dragged its right foot behind it on the ground; the bones of its knees were clearly visible but green clumps of skin clung to its broken foot. The clumps fell off the creature as it moved forward. It may not have any lips, but I was certain it was smiling at me as its teeth chattered together.

So focused on that one, I didn’t see the others until more hands slid out from beneath other toppled homes.

“River.
River
.”

The abrupt tug on my arm caused me to blink. I shook my head to clear it of the images still filling my vision.

“
River
.”

I looked up at Kobal. He gazed at me with concern; the fine lines around his eyes and mouth were more visible as he stared at me. I had no idea why I hadn’t pulled him into this vision with me, maybe because I was so tired, but he hadn’t witnessed the insanity I had. What I’d seen simply couldn’t be true. Bones didn’t come to life and drag themselves from rubble.

And demons didn’t exist either.

“What did you see?” he demanded.

“Death,” I answered as the gleaming eye sockets of the first one emerged from beneath the house. “Death is here.”

Kobal

River’s feet planted so firmly into the ground I almost lost my grip on her arm when she abruptly stopped walking. Turning toward her, I was prepared for whatever tirade she was about to unleash on me. Instead, I found her eyes glazed over. They had become the pale violet color they turned when she was in the grip of something beyond this world. They’d been the same way when we’d been fighting, but the color had flooded back into them as soon as she’d hit the wall of the house.

I pulled on her arm, hating the terror growing in her eyes and that she became so vulnerable when these visions took her over. I tugged on her arm again, stepping closer in the hopes of pulling her free from whatever held her.

“River.” She finally blinked, and her eyes returned to their normal amethyst hue when she came back to this world and herself. “What did you see?”

“Death. Death is here.”

My head shot up as I surveyed the horizon in search of more madagans or some other new threat. I saw nothing, but she’d seen something, and it was coming.

“Let’s go,” I commanded brusquely.

“It’s too late; they’re already here.”

I instinctively pulled her closer to me, determined to protect her from whatever she had seen. I didn’t care what happened to the humans surrounding us,
nothing
was going to harm her. My fangs lengthened, and my fingers curled into her arm as the possessive instinct hit me with far more force than it ever had before.

Mine!
This time there was no brushing off the thought, no denying the strength with which it rocked me. My gaze fell to her shoulder, the one I’d often sank my fangs into in our shared dreams. I’d never marked a woman in such a way, never had the compulsion before, but I would mark her. I would claim her because she was
mine
, and now something was after her.

“Where?” I demanded.

Her hand pointed past me as something slithered free from the remains of a downed house. “Shit!” I hissed from between my teeth when the revenir rose to its feet and shuffled toward us.

Grabbing hold of her arms, I lifted her up and thrust her behind me. I steadied her when she wobbled for a second. “You stay behind me!” I commanded her.

“I’m supposed to fight these things, aren’t I?” she protested.

She was, but everything in me screamed against her going anywhere near abominations such as these. I knew what their presence here meant, but that was something I was going to have to deal with later. Right now, all that mattered was keeping River alive.

“Stay behind me!” Her chin tilted up at my harsh command, but I turned away from her before she could protest. “Revenirs!” I bellowed at the others.

Bale and Verin did a double take before leaping forward. The others moved toward the approaching revenir as my eyes scanned the large group of humans who had followed us here. Half of them had been on the training field and didn’t have guns; the other half had followed from the town and had weapons slung over their shoulders. I didn’t know if bullets would do anything against the revenirs. We were about to find out.

“Get your guns ready!” I shouted at the humans still unaware of the danger. “Mac, get them ready! And cover your ears!”

I turned toward River to make sure she was still behind me when an ear-piercing shriek rent the air. The humans recoiled; they screamed as they slapped their hands over their ears. A few of them hit their knees as the relentless shriek continued. I winced against the noise, but having heard it before, I was prepared for the revenirs’ cry.

River’s hands already covered her ears and I enclosed mine over hers for extra protection before pulling her against my chest. Her body quaked as the lenses of the glasses on three of the soldiers near us shattered. The humans’ screams couldn’t be heard over the continuous shriek of the dead rising around us.

More humans fell to their knees; River’s nose scrunched up, and her eyes squinted closed. I would have given anything to take her away from this, to keep her from hearing it, but I couldn’t get her away from here in time and these things would only follow us. Now that they knew there was life nearby, they would be ruthless in their pursuit to feed from it.

I would rend every one of these walking sacks of bone limb from limb for causing her this pain.

Then, as suddenly as it had started, the revenirs’ scream broke off. The shriek had done what it was intended to do, distracted their prey and left them weaker.

River blinked up at me when I released her hands. “Whatever you do, don’t let them kiss you.” I commanded. “River, do you hear me?”

“Yes, yes,” she managed to stammer out then winced at the sound of her own voice.

“None of you let them kiss you!” I shouted to be heard over the sobs and mewls from the humans surrounding us.

“That’s not something you had to tell me,” a man with an AK-47 muttered.

I spun to face the horde now coming at us as revenirs rose from beneath the remains of the homes. Around me, Bale, Verin, Morax, Shax, and Corson fanned out. Bale pulled two swords free from where she had them sheathed against her back.

“You know the best way to deal with them,” Corson said from beside me.

“I do.” The problem was there were some secrets I preferred to keep from the humans. They couldn’t know all that we were capable of, and if River had scared them with her burst of fire, I’d have them pissing themselves. “Keep yourself leashed unless it becomes necessary.”

“And you?”

I glanced back at River. With her hair stuck to her face and her eyes wide, she looked young and vulnerable. There wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do to keep her safe. She had nothing other than her hands and her fire with which to defend herself. The fire would be her best option against the revenirs, but there was no way to know how long she would be able to use it. Her shoulders continued to heave as she struggled to catch her breath. I never should have pushed her so far when we’d been fighting.

I never could have expected revenirs to arrive in this world though. The first seal of Hell had been broken. The dead now walked the earth.

River’s violet eyes were searching as more and more revenirs poured from beneath the homes, pushing the humans closer against us as they tried to avoid the dead.

“I’ll do what has to be done,” I told Corson.

His orange eyes flicked toward River. “I hate these fuckers.”

“So do I.” I focused on River once more. “Fire is your best weapon against them.”

She didn’t get a chance to respond before the revenirs rushed forward as quickly as their hideously rotten bodies would allow them to. A low squeal of excitement emanated from them as one; the squeal rose toward their ear-splitting pitch once more.

Before they could reach their full, paralyzing screech, I shouted, “Fire your weapons!”

Bullets exploded from the guns, shredding through the remaining skin and bones of the revenirs. Some of them jerked and lurched from the impact of the bullets, others toppled to the ground like broken sticks. The ones hitting the ground continued onward, dragging themselves forward with their bony, malformed hands. Bullets pierced through skulls, shattering them and finally ceasing the movements of some.

On the other side of the close circle, humans fell back, toppling beneath the weight of the revenirs clawing at their bodies. The shrieks had ceased now that they were so focused on achieving their meal.

One of them leapt at me, its mouth open and its bony fingers hooked into claws. My hand shot out, and I seized hold of its throat and snapped its head from its neck with a thrust of my thumb against the bottom of its chin. Releasing it, I stomped on its skull before turning to grab hold of two more charging forward.

They had no eyes, but I knew their attention focused on River when their cries of excitement increased. My stomach did an odd somersault when I realized they had recognized what she was. Either they sensed in her something I hadn’t, or they believed Lucifer’s offspring would be the only one I’d defend to the death, but even if she hadn’t been the possible key, I would have laid down my life in order to protect hers.

Lucifer may have sent them in search of her, and if any of these revenirs managed to get away, they would report to him where she was.

“None of them can be allowed to survive. Kill them all!” I bellowed.

Bale and Corson carved through the ones leaping at them with swords, while the other demons beat and pummeled the revenirs into a pulp.

River

Kobal kept his body in front of me, moving with the lethal speed I’d seen when the madagans had attacked us. His eyes blazed with their golden fire as he tore the head off one of the oozing skeletons leaping and rushing at us. My head spun as I tried to take it all in while still trying to rid myself of the lingering pain their hideous screaming had caused to explode in my head and ears.

My bones felt like they were quaking as gunshots continued to pelt the malformed, twisted bodies of those things coming at us. Screams resonated from the humans falling beneath the onslaught of the dead.

I kept my hands up in a defensive position, but I felt my muscles go slack when one of those things pounced on the chest of a man ten feet away from me. Its mouth opened as it pushed the man further into the ground. Its head twisted to the side as it pressed its rotten, scaly lips against the man’s mouth.

People ran back and forth between me and the man, but I couldn’t tear my gaze away as I helplessly watched the man’s hands beat against the creature’s chest, shoving at its bony shoulders. His feet kicked against the ground, but no sounds came from him as the hideous creature continued its macabre kiss. The man’s flesh shriveled as the life drained from his body and into the monster on his chest. I had to help, but it all happened so fast that I only made it one step toward them.

The mummified skin of the revenir filled out; the grayish yellow color faded away to be replaced by a healthier white hue. Skin slid over the bones at the tips of its fingers as the man looked increasingly like a worm left out on the sidewalk in August. Around me, screams, gun shots, and the slicing sound of steel filled the air, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the monstrosity before me.

The kiss of death.
It now had a completely new meaning, and I couldn’t help but wonder if it didn’t get its origin from just this sort of scene. Some poor human had witnessed this through the veil and spread the word amongst those who would listen to him.

The man’s hands slid away from the creature, falling to his sides as his feet stopped kicking on the ground. A dried husk was all that remained of him when the thing lifted its head. My breath froze, and my blood ran cold when the creature looked at me. Its eye sockets were still blackened holes but now a red light burned from within those pitch-black depths.

Flakes of its skin fell off when its dried lips pulled back to reveal the empty maw of its mouth. The pointed tip of its blackened tongue flickered out before it launched itself off the withered corpse of its victim. It raced across the ground at me with far more speed than it had displayed before draining the man of his life.

I shook off the stupor clinging to me and braced my legs apart when the creature leapt at me. I spun, throwing out an elbow, catching it in the cheek, and sending it spiraling to the ground. It released one of those hideous shrieks before rising to its feet again. I resisted clamping my hands over my ears like it wanted me to do.

I would have given anything for a gun or sword right now as it came at me again.
Fire
, Kobal had told me. Lifting my hands, I winced against the hideous sound the revenir continued to emit. I tried to will the fire from my palms when it leapt at me again, but nothing happened.

Spinning to the side at the last second, I ducked to let it soar over my head. Its hands dug at my back, shredding my shirt with its skeletal fingers. I threw myself to the side, scrambling to avoid it as it came at me again. Something crashed into my back, knocking me to my knees, and I realized the thing had pounced on me like a cat on a mouse.

Swinging back, I drove my elbow into its jaw. Despite the hard blow, it stubbornly hung on to me. Through the ruined material of my shirt, its fingers clawed at my back. Its excited chattering increased when it succeeded in spilling my blood. I shoved myself up and flipped onto my back, smashing it into the dirt and finally knocking its grip free.

I rolled over to my side and off of the monster. My fingers tore at the blackened earth as I scrambled to evade the bony fingers clutching at my legs. Spinning around, I pulled my foot back and slammed it into the creature’s face before pulling back and kicking it again. I continued to bash it with my foot repeatedly until its face caved, and its fingers finally released me.

My chest heaved as I pulled myself backward with my elbows until I fell against the body of the man who had been sucked dry. The sounds of the battle poured into my ears as my eardrums finally heard something other than the hideous shriek of the one who had attacked me.

My gaze fell on Kobal’s bare back as he fought four of them off. They’d ripped his shirt from him; his back bore the marks of their bony fingers across the intricate tattoos circling his shoulder blades. He didn’t appear to feel any of the damage they’d inflicted on his body as he continued to slash at them with his claws.

Putting my hands under me, I shoved myself up to go back and try to help the others. A hand caught my wrist, jerking me back before I could get to my feet. My heart plummeted into my stomach when I turned to stare into the empty eyes of the man who had been killed.

“It’s you.” The tone of his voice reminded me of the doors on dusty tombs pulled open for the first time. I half expected flecks of dust to fall from his arid mouth onto me. “I see you.”

Panic like I’d never known before seared through me. I felt like I was falling into the empty pits of his eyes, being pulled away to something more, something that was watching me from the other side. Something I had to resist, or I would be lost.

Screaming, I threw myself backward before I could be sucked further into the abyss. I knew whatever was on the other side would latch onto me; what it would do to me afterward was something I didn’t want to contemplate. Fire burst from my palms, smashing into the man so brutally that I launched him five feet straight into the air. I rolled out of the way before his roasting body could plummet back down onto mine.

Panting, I lay on the ground, staring at the empty eye sockets across from me as the fire consumed the man’s flesh. My arms trembled when I got them underneath me and managed to push myself to my feet. I took a stumbling step forward before something leapt onto my back. Bony fingers encircled my throat and dug into my flesh.

I grabbed hold of the hands, trying to pull them away before it could crush my windpipe. Stars burst before my eyes as I labored to draw breath. I choked, gagging when the fingers dug in deeper. Dizziness assailed me, and the world lurched beneath my feet as I staggered to the side.

Fire flashed from my palms, sizzling into the creature’s hands around my neck. Its shriek caused my legs to buckle when it released me. My knees hit the ground as air rushed into my lungs. I’d knocked the thing off my throat, but now its bony fingers clawed at my back. The feel of its hands scrambling over my flesh caused a shudder of revulsion to wrack me.

A maddened bellow rent the air. I’d just managed to get my head up when Kobal arrived at my side. His arm swung down and he backhanded the thing on my back so hard he knocked its skull from its spine. Its body flew off my back; its head fell at my side. I gawked at the skull until Kobal lifted his foot and crushed it, splattering bone and bits of flesh across the ground.

I didn’t have time to react before Kobal wrapped an arm around my waist and plucked me off the ground. My head fell back against his shoulder as my lungs still labored to draw air into my deoxygenated brain. I hung limply in his grasp as he braced his legs apart.

The revenirs surrounded us on all sides. No matter how many were cut down, more arose from the remains of the soldiers and volunteers who fell beneath the monsters. No more gunshots filled the air. As I watched, some of the soldiers used their empty guns to beat back the death hoard closing in on them.

“Kobal!” Bale shouted as Shax fell beneath a pack of those creatures.

Kobal placed my feet down, but he kept his left arm around my waist, pinning me to him. “Stay against me, no matter what,” he commanded in a hoarse voice.

I didn’t think I had the energy to move anywhere right now anyway. As he raised his right arm, disbelief filled me when the strange symbols and flames tattooed on him began to move and twist across his skin. I had the strangest compulsion to touch those symbols, to know what they would feel like as flames leapt to life across his flesh.

I didn’t recoil from him as the fire spread over his arm and up toward his shoulder; instead, I burrowed closer to the warmth of those beautiful flames crackling over his flesh. Keeping me against him, he turned to the side and released a stream of fire that shot from his palm and across the air toward the creatures clawing at the other demons. Shrieks erupted from the monsters as they were flung away.

The fire slid over the demons, illuminating their flesh and burning their clothes away from them, but they remained otherwise unaffected by the flames as the fire sputtered out around them.

He turned in a circle, releasing more waves of fire upon those creatures, careful not to hit the humans though some of them lost a few articles of clothing too. I couldn’t imagine having that much control over my ability; it must have taken him hundreds of years of wielding it to become so adept at it.

Around us, fire blazed to life to eat away the remains of the already charred town. Any of the creatures trying to scramble away were hit with a ball of flame that sent them spiraling to the ground with screams of agony.

The heat of the fire coming from him didn’t burn my skin or char my clothing. Instead, it enveloped me in its warmth as he continued to emit a punishing wall of flames. Adjusting me, the hand of the arm around my waist slid beneath my ruined shirt. His thumb brushed over my flesh soothingly as he held me closer.

When only a few of the creatures remained and the rest of the demons were ruthlessly slaughtering them, he withdrew his stream of fire. The symbols and flames of his tattoos readjusted over his deeply tanned flesh, looking the same as they had before.

I was tempted to burrow against the heat still radiating from him and lose myself in the security of his arms, but I couldn’t. Exhaustion beat against me, and my head still felt murky from the lack of oxygen, but even feeling as if I was wading through mud, I saw the confused, terrified, and angry stares of the humans swinging in our direction.